With every year that passes, the task of marketing a business gets harder. Yes, the technologies that enable marketing are evolving to make the mechanics of marketing easier, but they’re easier for everyone. Naturally, what makes marketing increasingly difficult with each passing year is the growing competition for consumers’ attention.
Invest in high-quality photography and videography
In 2024, businesses that invest in capturing the value they deliver to customers through professional photography and videography are going to have an easier time closing sales and justifying their prices.
The consumer preference for visual content such as photo and video is at an all-time high, and it’s showing no signs of diminishing.
The progression of social media is a great example of how this trend is manifesting. Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram have begun to prioritize and even favor visual content. Some social media platforms like TikTok don’t even allow text-only posts, and those that prioritize text-only content (e.g., X and Threads) are struggling to retain their users.
Though social media provides the easiest lens for assessing this phenomenon, it's not the only venue where the consumer demand for visual content is present.
People expect visual content in almost everything they do, and more importantly, they allow visual content to influence their decision-making, including ordering fast food based on the menu picture and making lifestyle changes because of what they see an influencer do. This is because visual content helps build trust and develop credibility.
This applies to customers for green industry businesses, too.
If a potential customer is looking for a lawn care company to manage their weeds, they’re going to evaluate companies based on their Google Business Profiles, their websites, their photo galleries, their customer reviews, their yard signs, their trucks, their paid ads (online, TV, print, etc.) and their social media.
The business that’s able to incorporate quality photo and video throughout each one of those channels to “show” rather than “tell” the customer what they can do is going to be better positioned to win that customer.
This is not a new concept, but it's increasingly becoming more important, especially since younger generations (those who grew up on websites, social media and TV) are becoming decision makers for purchasing green industry services. Though it does not have to be frequent, investing in a couple of professional photo and video shoots each quarter will go a long way for a company in this industry.
Make speed and convenience the priority
Businesses that can keep up with the pace of meeting the needs of customers while making it easy to do business with them are going to thrive. Consumers expected quick service before 2024, but now they are going to demand it.
Unfortunately, with the looming threat of getting a bad review or losing a potential customer to a competitor, businesses must meet this expectation if they want to prosper. The need for speedy and convenient service is especially important for service-based businesses such as those in the green industry.
For example: In lawn care, the ability to provide a quote on the spot can be the difference between winning or losing a potential customer.
Service and operations may come to mind when thinking of speed and convenience, but the principles can extend well into marketing. Here are couple of ways a business can prioritize speed and convenience in their marketing:
Website
A business' website should load quickly so people can easily click from page to page without needing to wait.
It should also offer a generous amount of information that potential and existing customers find helpful. In doing this, the business reduces the time it takes a potential or existing customer to get the answer to their question because it eliminates the need for them to contact the business.
Automation
There are several opportunities to incorporate automation into a business’ marketing efforts with email messages, text messages and chat bots being the most common.
Automation facilitates speedy communication since it removes the step of needing to prepare the message for each exchange. Automated messages can be set up to send when potential or existing customers schedule an appointment, submit a contact form, sign a contract, request a quote, open an email, make a purchase, etc.
By automating correspondence to send the right messaging and content at the right time, a business can provide a convenient experience for its potential and existing customers.
Work with a knowledgeable SEO team
With the introduction of artificial intelligence to Google search at the end of 2023, the need for investing in a competent and credible SEO team is critical.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of getting a company’s website or business listing to rank higher in the results of a search engine, like Google, for search terms or “keywords” that are relevant to what the business offers.
If implemented correctly, SEO can lead to significant returns for a business. Those who have been fortunate to ride the waves of ranking among the top three Google business listings for relevant search results can attest. Unlike paid advertising, the results from SEO do not have a direct relationship with its cost and can often have a compounding effect, meaning a business can experience increases in ROI over time while the cost of SEO remains constant.
Additionally, consumers who are actively searching for a service are considered warm leads. This means the companies they contact have a higher chance of gaining their business since they are more inclined to buy than someone who is not actively searching for the service.
Businesses that rank in the top three search results capture a large portion of the clicks and calls from those warm leads because the average consumer typically does not scroll beyond the first handful of search results.
Since Google is incorporating artificial intelligence into its search features to improve user experience, the simple tactics that used to work are not going to be effective much longer, and a new set of SEO practices are likely to emerge.
This is why it’ll be important to invest in a team that constantly has their ear to the ground to learn how the latest advancements in search engine technology are going to affect the steps they take to get businesses to rank high and grow their bottom line.
Put chips into new baskets
None of the methods mentioned above are new or cutting edge.
Photography and videography, automated messaging, and strong SEO teams have existed for years, but the shifting consumer preferences and advancing technologies have presented the need for businesses to begin to prioritize them if they want to win big in 2024.
